1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications services. More particularly, the present invention relates to capabilities that can enhance substantially the value and usefulness of various communication paradigms including, inter alia, Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Electronic Mail (E-Mail), Instant Messaging (IM), streaming (audio, video, etc.) data, etc.
2. Background of the Invention
As the ‘wireless revolution’ continues to march forward (through various flavors of 2G, 3G, 4G, and beyond) the importance to a Mobile Subscriber (MS)—for example a user of a Wireless Device (WD) that is serviced in some way by possibly inter alia a Wireless Carrier (WC)—of their WD grows substantially. By way of (non-limiting) example, a WD may comprise inter alia a mobile (e.g., feature, smart, etc.) telephone; a portable computing device; a desktop, laptop, pad, handheld, etc. computer; a Personal Digital (or Data) Assistant (PDA); a home, automobile, etc. audio and/or video system; etc.
One consequence of the growing importance of WDs is the resulting ubiquitous nature of WDs—i.e., MSs carry them at almost all times and use them for an ever-increasing range of activities.
(Note: While portions of the discussion below will, for simplicity of exposition, refer to messaging generally and certain types of messaging—including inter alia SMS, MMS, etc.—specifically, it will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art that application of aspects of the present invention to numerous other communication paradigms (including inter alia a Voice Over IP (VoIP) data stream, software application (e.g., game, etc.) data, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-addressed artifact, a video data stream (e.g., a movie, a video conference call, etc.), a voice telephone call, an audio data stream (e.g., a song, etc.), signaling and other command-and-control data, etc.) is easily possible and may indeed be considered to be fully within the scope of the present invention.)
Over the past several years various factors (including the ubiquitous nature of WDs) have driven a steady annual increase, year over year, in among other things the number of SMS, MMS, etc. messages that have been exchanged by and between WDs. That steady increase shows no sign of abating. For example, as reported by the industry group CTIA (see ctia.org on the World Wide Web) in the U.S. there were over 2.3 trillion SMS messages sent during 2011 (up from approximately 2.0 trillion messages sent during 2010 and approximately 1.6 trillion messages sent during 2009) and there were over 53.0 billion MMS messages sent during 2011 (up from approximately 35.0 billion messages sent during 2009 and approximately 15.0 billion MMS messages sent during 2008).
As MSs have employed their WDs for ever more activities (including among other things different flavors of messaging) their WDs have become increasingly more vulnerable to a range of undesirable behaviors. One undesirable behavior is spam (e.g., unsolicited, undesired, possibly bulk-dispatched messages).
Internet-based Electronic Mail (E-mail) spam has become notorious. As has been noted by NetZero, spam “ . . . is the Internet's equivalent of junk mail. The Internet abuse generally referred to as spamming ranges from annoyances like electronic mass mailings, mass advertisements, junk email, chain letters, and off-topic newsgroup postings on one hand to more serious abuses such as perpetration of scams or confidence games, transmission of fraudulent product or service promotions and harassing or threatening emails on the other. All types of spam waste the valuable time, energy and resources of the recipients, the service providers involved, and the whole Internet community.”
A number of efforts or initiatives have arisen in response to the growth of Internet-based E-mail spam including, inter alia, purely technical efforts (such as, e.g., the SpamHaus project) and legal initiatives (such as, e.g., the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act)).
Since spam artists are now targeting WDs within wireless messaging ecosystems (in fact, the term “SpaSMS” has been coined to describe SMS-based spam), a range of new, enhanced anti-spam mechanisms are necessary to efficiently, dynamically, etc. identify or detect, and optionally eliminate, spam within a wireless messaging ecosystem. Some of the approaches that have been tried, each having a different level of success, include:
1) Message body or content (e.g., keyword) analysis. Given the staggering message volumes (as described above) such an approach can consume significant computing resources and potentially add unwanted latency to message processing operations.
2) Message rate analysis by for example originating address. Such an approach can be overcome by spammers by among other things using a large pool of originating addresses, distributing their message quantity over time, etc. Such an approach is also susceptible to false positives given the legitimate, rapid message-based conversations that are frequently carried out by many MSs (such as for example teenagers).
The present invention provides a generalized infrastructure that offers, among other things, enhanced dynamic anti-spam capabilities (that can be employed alone or in combination with other anti-spam mechanisms) and addresses various of the (not insubstantial) challenges that are associated with same in new and innovatory ways.